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Toby & Barney's Ear Follow Up

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If it is not too late - please ask him to get the swabs cultured. There is a nasty bacterium (Pseudomonas) that is resistant to every abx and type of treatment except gentamycin (ie if it is the same bug then surolan will not work). Over 3 years, I had 3 pigs get ear infections and each time this bug was found to be the cause,
 
Pebble said:
If it is not too late - please ask him to get the swabs cultured. There is a nasty bacterium (Pseudomonas) that is resistant to every abx and type of treatment except gentamycin (ie if it is the same bug then surolan will not work). Over 3 years, I had 3 pigs get ear infections and each time this bug was found to be the cause,
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God I feel so stupid! we had this conversation on the phone and I just didn't click that pseudomonas was bacterial. On the phone the vet said it looked like a staph. Will be too late now as the swabs were taken on Wednesday.

I really am being a bit useless!
 
If vet says it looks like a Staph then it probably is. Pseudomonas would appear as rod-shaped Gram negative (red when stained)...as do many other bugs so culture would be required to determine what the bug is . Staph on the other hand is Cocci Gram positive (purple when stained) and has an unmistakeable "clusters of grapes" appearance under the microscope - no need for culture
x
 
AbiS said:
I really am being a bit useless!
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Please don;t beat yourself up! You're not useless at all and if you were sitting a GCSE in "uselessness" then I'm afraid you would fail miserably LOL!

You would however rate an A* for a GCSE in "competence and determination" for what you have achieved
You've successfully processed and acted upon a lot of highly specialised scientific and technical information in a very short space of time to ensure your piggies get the best of treatment for both the mites and ear problems with really fantastic results.

Well done!
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We have just come back from a trip to the vets for ear follow up after the second lot of ear drops. The vet was really happy and said there was no further discharge in Barney's ears. One of Toby's is clear and the other has a teeny tiny bit left in but the vet feels that it does not require any further drops. They are still doing a small amount of head shaking but we think that is either down to habit or they are trying to get the last bit of drops out of their ears. We don't really know who is doing the shaking as it is so minimal we never see them shaking we just very occasionally hear the odd 'brrr'.

They are still a bit itchy and I have seen some white dust in Barney's hair so the vet sellotaped them again and will let me know. If there are any mites I will request ivermectin injections this time instead of the spot on. This has been a very long 3 months of vet visits but hopefully we are done now!

Saying that - Toby has a poorly paw - vet was concerned although couldn't feel anything wrong - I only mentioned it to him to make sure we were extra-specially gentle with Tobes, not because I was worried. He took some convincing that it was just a sprain as the pair of them play really roughly: popcorning, wheelbarrowing, chasing round the lounge and up and down the ramp, not to mention Saturday's wheelspins on the kitchen tiles. He just needs to rest for a while!
 
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